The invention relates to a conveying system, in particular bucket conveyors or cell conveyors, with conveying cells for accommodating in particular hot bulk goods or lumpy conveying material, said conveying cells comprising a bottom, a front wall and a rear wall in the conveying direction of the conveying system and side walls connecting the latter, wherein the conveying cells open at the top are shielded from the surrounding atmosphere by means of a stationary and gas-tight top cover that spans the open surface of the conveying cells and by means of stationary and gas-tight side covers disposed on both sides of the conveying cells and a protective gas is introducible into the interior enclosed by the top cover and the side covers.
A conveying system with the aforementioned features is known from WO 2007/065582 A1. The conveying elements of the conveying system, which are constituted in the form of conveying cells or conveying buckets which in each case comprise a bottom, a front wall and a rear wall in the conveying direction and side walls connecting the latter and which are connected by chains as traction members, slide on rails by means rollers fitted laterally to said conveying elements. A top cover and mutually opposite side covers are fitted above and at the sides of the conveying elements in each case in a stationary arrangement, said covers shielding the conveying elements running inside the covers from the surrounding atmosphere and thus creating on the one hand a thermal insulation of a hot or warm conveyed material and on the other hand enabling the generation of a protective gas atmosphere in the interior of the covers by the introduction of a suitable protective gas, in order to prevent undesired reactions, in particular oxidation, in the conveyed material. The stationary side covers are disposed in the plane of the lateral rollers and end at a distance above the latter.
The drawback is still associated with the known conveying system that sealing of the space enclosed by the top cover and the side covers is not provided at the bottom, so that in this region the admission of surrounding air or an escape of introduced protective gas is possible.
The problem underlying the invention, therefore, is to improve the shielding of the conveying elements from the surrounding atmosphere in a conveying system with the generic features.